


Nightmares and Fairy Tales

by Luz



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Briefly mentioned Ronan/Adam, Fluff, Gen, Nightmares, No Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8352241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luz/pseuds/Luz
Summary: Lynch brothers being soft ◕‿◕





	

**Author's Note:**

> just fuck me up fam

Since the list of people Ronan trusted with his cows was short and the list of people he trusted to take care of his family’s property was even shorter, babysitting the farm usually fell to Matthew Lynch. He handled the responsibility better than Ronan had thought he might. His matter of fact optimism and wherewithal suited the unexpected complications that farming work often threw. The cows were drawn to his broad gentle hands and even the barn cats that tried to scratch Ronan seemed to get along with Matthew.

 

Since Ronan would be getting an early start the next day and there were morning chores to do, Matthew slept over at the Barns instead of in his Aglionby dorm. He’d had lacrosse practice at six that morning so by ten he was soundly asleep, snoring softly in his childhood bedroom.

 

Ronan was puttering in his own room, packing an overnight bag to take with him the next morning when he heard a faint sound coming from down the hallway. Opal, he knew, was fast asleep in the hay fort Ronan had helped her build and let her stay in overnight in as long as she reported for breakfast each morning.

 

He paused at the ajar door to Matthew’s room. In their younger years they might as well have shared a room for the number of times they’d fallen asleep on each other’s floors, but they weren’t little kids anymore. Childhood was something both of them had left behind. _For better or for worse_ , Ronan thought as he pushed the door open.

 

When he saw Matthew curled in on himself on the bed, Ronan promptly forgot that he wasn’t a little kid any more. Despite the ongoing growth spurt that had matched his height to Ronan’s and was closing in on Declan’s, he looked impossibly small under his blanket. As Ronan stood in the doorway Matthew whimpered again in his sleep, shaking his head a little.

 

Ronan walked to the edge of the bed and shook his shoulder. “Hey,” he said.

 

When he woke Adam up from bad dreams he was silent and distant until he fell back asleep, like the world was weighing even more heavily than normal on his shoulders. He didn’t want to talk to Ronan about what he’d dreamt or even meet his eyes. So Ronan was startled when, almost as soon as he touched his brother’s shoulder, Matthew’s eyes shot open and he exclaimed, “Holy shit! That was the worst!”

 

Ronan leapt back. “Jesus, Matthew.”

 

“Oh my god,” Matthew continued. “That was the _worst_.” He sat up against the headboard and ran a hand through his disheveled curls.

 

“You said that already,” Ronan told him. 

 

“It was, Ronan.” Matthew proceeded to describe his nightmare - which involved aliens, a severe food allergy, and several lost appendages - in minute detail. Ronan listened to it all, sitting down on the floor by Matthew’s bed and gazing up at him as his hands waved in animation. People accused him of impatience, but the thing they didn’t get was that their shit didn’t matter to him.

 

“And then they got the probes out,” Matthew said with a shudder. “And they were all ready to stick one in S.L. And he was all covered in oozing pustules, right, because of the shrimp pad thai. And then you woke me up.”

 

“Damn, sorry,” Ronan said as he picked himself up from the floor. “Sounds like you just missed the best part.”

 

Matthew remained silent for a minute, sitting and fidgeting with the fringe of his blanket. Ronan made to leave the room, but paused in the doorway, half-expectant.

 

He turned around when Matthew said his name tremulously. “Yeah?”

 

“I’m kinda scared,” Matthew said. His voice was lower now, and when Ronan faced him he saw that a nervous crease had appeared between his eyes.

 

“Of what? Aliens? Pad thai?”

 

“Aren’t there people looking for us? What if something happens to me? Or you?”

 

Ronan sighed. He’d been having this kind of conversation with his brother for as long as he could remember. Matthew’s fears ranged from the inevitability of death to the possibility of a rat swimming up the plumbing and into the toilet bowl. Once he got started talking about them, it was difficult to stop him.

 

On the other hand, Ronan felt sickly responsible for this fear in particular. It was because of him that Matthew had been stuffed into a car trunk two years ago. His glazed, drugged eyes and the way he’d hidden his face in Ronan’s shoulder rather than face the creature his own brother had pulled from his mind flashed shamefully in Ronan’s memory.

 

“Nothing’s gonna happen. We have people looking out for us,” he told Matthew gruffly.

 

Matthew's brow furrowed. One of the lessons that Niall Lynch had taught his sons was that, in the end, the only person who a Lynch could turn to for help was another Lynch. It had taken Ronan three years after his father’s death to begin to unlearn this sentiment, and Matthew was an even slower learner than he was. “Like who?” he said.

 

“Like the house of witches.”

 

“Psychics!” Matthew yelped. Ronan smirked. Matthew slept a lot in church, but the weekend before Halloween he had listened to the entire service on the treachery of witchcraft with wide eyes.

 

“Whatever. The point is, did you know they have a list of all the people in Henrietta who are gonna die in the next year?”

 

Matthew’s eyes grew wide. “Am I on it?” he whispered.

 

Ronan rolled his eyes. “No, idiot. I would have said something by now.”

 

Matthew shook his head furiously, curls bouncing. “I wouldn’t want to know!”

 

“You just _asked_. Besides, we’d find a way to save you. Gansey was on it once, and now he’s having a year long threesome, so.”

 

Matthew wrinkled his nose. “You really think they would help us if we were in trouble?”

 

“I know they would. So would Parrish. He’s good at scheming. He helped me figure out Greenmantle.”

 

Matthew goggled. “Is that why you’re dating him Ronan? Because of his powers? Because I know Declan did that once with a girl whose dad was the chairman of -“

 

“Shut the fuck up, Matthew.” Ronan growled, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “He doesn’t have _powers_ anymore, okay. He’s just smart. Are you ready to go back to sleep? Because I really am.” 

 

Matthew frowned, hesitating before he spoke. “Can you tell me a story?”

 

“A _story_?”

 

“Yeah. You know…” He didn’t say the words _like dad used to tell us,_ but Ronan still heard them. He closed his eyes and tipped his head toward the ceiling, as though offering a silent prayer for deliverance. 

 

“Yeah. Okay.” It was worth it just to see the way Matthew’s grin split broadly across his face, erasing every trace of anxiety. Ronan pulled his legs up so they were crossed on the bed and put on his best storytelling face (which was really his best Niall Lynch face.)

 

“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank…”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, I'd love to hear what you thought! also, my trc side blog is ronanreagan.tumblr.com and I am literally always down to talk about ronan lynch (and any other character for that matter)


End file.
